


Of the Resistance

by p0stScriptum



Category: Charmed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Evil Wyatt, Imprisonment, Moral Ambiguity, Murder, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 04:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5192609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p0stScriptum/pseuds/p0stScriptum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We know Chris traveled back in time to stop Wyatt from turning evil, but we don't really see much of the dark future. So, here we go: Magic has been outed. Wyatt Halliwell is the Source and ruler of the world. The Resistance is all that stands between him and total domination.</p><p>The lines between good and evil have been blurred. Differences between demons and witches and humans cease to matter in the face of one all-powerful tyrant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Only Fifteen

**Author's Note:**

> You may recognize this from my fanfiction.net account.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the tentative intro:

2020

_[Six Years Before Chris Halliwell Travels to the Past]_

"Come along, Christopher."

Christopher Perry Halliwell is only fifteen years old. His mother died a year ago. His father disappeared to "up there," not that his father's disappearance matters much (Leo had never been around to begin with, anyway). His brother is the new Source. Wyatt outed magic to the world and has already secured control of the Americas.

Aunt Phoebe was killed last month.

Aunt Paige and Phoebe's daughter Prue are the only other Halliwells left. They are at Magic School, which now serves as a makeshift sanctuary for the magicals that refuse to bow to Wyatt's reign. Magic School is desperately trying to hold out against the onslaught of demon's Wyatt keeps sending. He says he has to make an example out of them. No one is allowed to disobey him, he'd said.

"I'll be there in a minute, Wy."

Chris tries to smile and bear it, because that's what Wyatt expects of him. Wyatt can never know that Chris isn't the faithful little brother he pretends to be.

Chris is only fifteen, and he is the founder of an underground resistance against his tyrant brother.


	2. Come What May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future Chris has successfully gone undercover as the Halliwell's whitelighter, who have no idea what's coming. But Chris knows, and he's not going to let it happen again.

2003

They don’t like him. It’s obvious – miserably so. Piper especially is giving him the cold shoulder, and the other two follow her lead. It’s understandable, really, given that he replaced the whitelighter that they’ve come to view as precious family. Too bad. They’ll have to get used to him because he’s not going anywhere for a while.

He can deal with their aloofness for the time being.

When Piper looks at him, so distrustful and without a hint of warmth, he can deal with that. Paige’s sarcastic jibes, those are okay. Phoebe’s utter inability to understand him, that’s good even. And Leo… As long as Leo is far away, locked up in Valhalla, Chris will be fine.

What he can’t deal with is, as always, his brother. Little baby Wyatt, pampered and adored by Piper and his loving aunts. It disgusts Chris to see the one who will cause so much pain and destruction being treated so kindly by his oblivious family. It’s Wyatt’s fault that they are all dead in the future, but all they see is an adorable child.

All Chris sees when he looks at baby Wyatt is the vile man he will grow to become.

He knows he’s being unfair in judging someone (a baby) for crimes not yet committed. However, how could he feel any differently when he’s seen firsthand the cruelty that Wyatt is capable of? If anyone else had made this trip, they wouldn’t hesitate in killing Wyatt right now when he is so vulnerable. Chris, though, has to believe that there’s a way to fix things without killing his own brother. He has to try. Seeing the way that his family adores him only hardens Chris’ resolve.

However, if he cannot stop Wyatt from turning evil, he will make sure that the future doesn’t repeat itself.

He’ll keep the charmed ones safe. He’ll make them be better than they were before, because what they’re doing now isn’t good enough. He’ll get them to take things more seriously. Get them to vanquish any evil out there that might have influenced Wyatt one way or another. And if they refuse to do the work, then he’ll hunt down the evil himself.

None of them can afford to waste any time. They have to be productive. Focus on being the “charmed ones.” He’s always saying that, but the message never seems to get through the sisters’ thick skulls. Phoebe’s never around because she’s off in Hong Kong with that boyfriend of hers – “James” or “Mason” or something – and Paige is trying to build a career through some ridiculous temp job. Worse still, Piper (who has been acting strange ever since Leo left) supports both of her sisters’ decisions with empty reassurances.

They don’t listen to him. He’s a stranger. His opinion means little to the charmed ones, and it will continue to be so until he gains a little more trust.

At the present moment, Chris is serving himself another cup of coffee, rubbing blearily at his tired eyes, while Piper feeds baby Wyatt breakfast. She’s so dedicated to her son, even when under the influence of whatever spell Chris is fairly sure Leo put her under… Chris tries not to glower as baby Wyatt laughs obnoxiously and flings his food around, creating a mess on the floor that Piper will have to clean up.

He swears to himself that if he can’t stop Wyatt, he will kill him.

* * *

2019

[Seven Years Before Chris Halliwell Travels to the Past]

Fourteen year old Chris stares blankly out his bedroom window, watching the rain pour down outside.

The Manor is quiet these days. For months, no one has laughed in this house. It’s as if his mother took all the happiness with her when she died – murdered by demons on his birthday. Chris can remember that day with clarity:

“Make a wish!”

He’d blown out his candles, had a brief scuffle with Wyatt when his brother tried to shove his head into the cake, and then his mom had reached forward and kissed his forehead and whispered, “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

Leo hadn’t been there (not uncommon for Chris’ birthdays); his aunts and Prue had, though.

“Well, what are we waiting for? I’m starving!” yelled Paige.

“Oh, I forgot the knife,” said his mom. “Be right back.”

Except she never came back.

“Hey mom, are you camping in here or wha-”

She was lying dead on the kitchen floor with a hole through her chest.

“Mom!” he’d cried.

“Christopher, look out!” shouted Wyatt.

Then Chris was on the floor. The wall exploded behind him. Wyatt fought the demon. He heard Prue shout in the other room. But all Chris had cared about was his mother.

“Mom! Mom, wake up! Come on! Wake up, mom!”

He’d done the only thing he could think to do: he called for Leo. Like all the times before, no matter how loud or how long he begged, Leo never came.

Phoebe had. She’d held him in her arms and rocked him back and forth as he cried.

“Shh, Chris. Shhh. I’m so sorry, sweetie.”

It had been an ambush. The demons caught them by surprise. Prue had been blasted in the leg and Phoebe had a gash in her forehead from being knocked into a table. Wyatt followed the demons to the Underworld. Paige had followed him.

His mom had died, alone and unexpectedly.

That was months ago, and Wyatt still hasn’t returned. Now Chris wakes up every other night from nightmares and instead of his mom being there to comfort him it’s either Prue or Aunt Phoebe who comes into his room and sits with him. He wishes Wyatt would come home. It feels like he lost both his mom and his brother on the day he turned fourteen.

His bedroom door creaks open.

“Hey, Chris,” Prue greets from the doorway.

She comes in and sits beside him on his bed so that they can watch the rain together. Chris is grateful that he has Prue. She doesn’t pry or try to get him to “talk about it.” She is just there for him.

“I was thinking we’d order pizza tonight. My mom has to work late.”

He grunts in acknowledgement.

“I’ll take that as a: ‘Sure. Sounds good.’”

They sit there in companionable silence for a while until the rain has finally stopped. Then Chris asks what he’s been too afraid to ask before.

“Do you think Wyatt will come back?”

Prue is quiet for a long moment. He knows why. His aunts have been weary of bring up this subject with him. Anything about his mom or Wyatt or his birthday usually sets him off. They think they’re sparing his feelings when they don’t talk about it. The truth is they’re only making everything hurt more.

Finally, she says, “I don’t know, Chris. But I really hope so.”

He feels the same.

[A Few Weeks Later]

He hears a clatter in the kitchen and thinks that it’s only Prue come home early from her date. It is a Saturday, so there was no school (magic school has pretty much the same schedule as normal school). Prue had gone out to the movies with her boyfriend – a childhood friend she’d been crushing on for years. Chris hopes their date went well. Otherwise he’s going to be hearing about it for months.

Preparing himself for damage control if need be, he enters the kitchen fully expecting to see Prue with a tub of ice cream, crying her eyes out. Instead, he sees a blond-haired teenager dressed in dirty clothes raiding the refrigerator.

“Wyatt?” he asks uncertainly.

His brother turns around. “Hey, Christopher,” Wyatt says, smiling. “Where’s the sandwich meat? I’m starving.”

Chris blinks and replies, “Um, I think we’re out of it. Phoebe was gonna go to the store tomorrow…”

“Oh.” Wyatt closes the fridge. “Well, no matter then.”

He waves his hand and two sub sandwiches appear on the counter.

“You hungry?” Wyatt asks.

Chris isn’t, but he says he is simply for the excuse to walk over and stand beside his brother, who he's missed these past few lonely months. Wyatt scarfs down his sandwich quickly like he hasn’t had much to eat for the last couple days. He does look a bit skinnier. He definitely needs a shower.

“So,” Chris ventures. “Where have you been, Wy?”

He takes a bite of the sandwich. It’s delicious. Turkey, ham, cheese and mayo – Chris’ favorite.

Wyatt opens the fridge again and pours a glass of milk for himself. “I was in the Underworld,” he says between gulps.

“All this time?” Chris can’t completely wipe the accusation from his voice when he asks, “Why didn’t you come home?”

“I had important business to attend to,” Wyatt explains. “Still do, in fact.” He gives Chris a significant look. “You can’t tell anyone that you’ve seen me, Christopher.”

Chris is baffled. “Why?” he demands. “Why are you even here now, then?”

He regrets asking the moment the words leave his mouth. He shouldn’t question Wyatt when his brother has finally decided to show his face around the manor after all this time. Chris should just be happy that he’s able to see his brother now. Knowing that Wyatt is okay should be enough.

But Wyatt would have been able to sense Chris coming. He could have left without being found if he wished to remain hidden. Unless Wyatt wanted Chris to see him…

“Aren’t I allowed to check in with my little brother?” Wyatt asks drolly.

Chris yelps, “Of course!”

His brother smirks. “Then what’s the problem?”

Not knowing what to say, Chris shrugs, helplessly.

Wyatt chuckles. “Worry not, Christopher,” he says. “I won’t have to remain ambiguous much longer. I’ve got plans. Once I’m ready, we can live together again. Things will be much better. You’ll see.”

“I hope so, Wy.”

Wyatt leaves a little later. He claims that he has business in the Underworld and once his business is through he’ll come back. Chris hugs his brother before he goes (something he realizes that he hasn’t done since they were kids) and makes him promise to be careful.

“Just come back, Wy. Okay? Please.”

“Of course, Christopher.”

[Four Months Later]

The time has finally come. Chris has asked his brother countless times if he is completely certain about going through with his plans. He always gets the same answer.

“Are you absolutely sure, Wy? What you want to do just hasn’t been done. Not with good results, at least. Are you sure you can do this?”

“Of course I’m sure, Christopher. I haven’t been preparing for nothing.”

Wyatt wants to create a world where magic doesn’t have to be hidden. He believes that the reason the demons have the upper hand is because they don’t worry about exposing magic. Witches have to work twice as hard to keep their magic a secret from the outside world. If magic was common knowledge, the Halliwell’s wouldn’t have to pretend to be normal. It would be so much easier if they didn’t have to hide.

As the twice-blessed, Wyatt is the prophesied child, the heir of King Arthur, destined to wield the sword Excalibur, and one of the most powerful witches to ever walk the Earth. Already, his power is uncontested. Wyatt plans to out magic. It will all start with him. He can do it. No one will be able to stand in his way. Once other magicals see that he is able to live a free life with magic, they will follow his example. He’ll revolutionize the world, and people will have no choice but to accept the existence of magic.

It’s his destiny, he says.

When the world knows of his power, sees what he’s capable of, no creature would dare to attack the Halliwells again. They will have everything they ever wanted: a life with magic and freedom. More than that… They will be like royalty. Chris doesn’t care about the royalty part. The thought of being so revered by the entire world makes him nervous, but he’s already used to that sort of attention form the magical community, so he figures he’ll be able to deal with it.

His aunts and Prue, though…

Wyatt hasn’t told them. They don’t even know that Chris has been in contact with Wyatt. Only Chris knows. His brother had been adamant that Chris couldn’t tell the family of his plans because they would try to stop him. Wyatt may be powerful, but his aunts have connections. They might just be able to pull something over on him. Chris had kept his lips sealed about Wyatt’s plans. The warnings were unnecessary. He couldn’t even imagine betraying Wyatt’s trust.

And now the day has come for Wyatt to put his plans into motion.

“Just be careful, Wy,” Chris warns.

“Everything will be fine, Christopher. You’ll see.”

As his brother goes out to display his power to the world, Chris sits nervously at home with his oblivious cousin and tries to watch the idiotic show on television. He’s waiting for everything to change, and everything does change.

[One Month and a Half Later]

He wakes up that morning feeling more tired than he was when he went to sleep. After getting dressed, he exits his room and finds Prue waiting for him. She’s dressed in designer clothes (the kind she’d always wanted), but there is an unhappy frown on her face. He nods at her in acknowledgment and they begin to walk together without a word.

Prue has to ruin the mood by blurting out, “Don’t tell me you’re okay with it.”

He knew she was going to be difficult.

“With what?” he counters. “Am I okay with Wyatt making our lives better? Yeah I am. Am I okay with him having this huge mansion built just for us? Yeah. What’s there not to be okay with?”

“He’s imprisoning people and having them tortured! It’s happening right below this mansion that you happen to like so much.”

They’d moved into the mansion a few weeks ago. It was a truly magnificent place. Everything about it was elegant and there was so much space. As for the Manor, Wyatt planned on turning it into a memorial for the two charmed ones that had died there – Piper and Prue (his mother’s sister, whom his cousin was named after). Chris honestly loved the mansion. Unlike at the Manor, he didn’t see things that reminded him of his mother everywhere he went.

“Wyatt would never do that, Prue.” He says it with much more certainty than he feels, mostly to convince himself rather than his cousin.

“You’re oblivious,” she retorts. “Why do you think he never wants us going down there?”

By “there” she means the mysterious cellar that Wyatt had deemed off limits. Wyatt insists it was simply meant to be a storage room, and the reason he wants them to keep out is because the construction had been faulty. One wrong move down there and the ceiling might collapse on them.

“Maybe because he doesn’t want us getting hurt?” Chris replies.

Prue scoffs. “You really believe all that crap he says?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because he’s a liar, Chris.”

He glares at her. “He’s my brother, Prue.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m your cousin and I was there for you after your mother died. Where was he, huh?”

Chris stutters to a stop, and so does she. They glare at each other, standing in the middle of an empty hallway.

“That was completely uncalled for!” he snaps.

“I’m serious! I know something’s going on in that cellar and Wyatt’s behind it. There’s something wrong with him. Who knows what happened when he was in the Underworld, Chris!”

“Someone mention the Underworld?”

Both Chris and Prue tense when Wyatt appears behind them unexpectedly. He does that sometimes – often. Chris almost never hears Wyatt orb into a room. Some might be disturbed by this (Prue certainly is), but Chris is trying to get used to it.

The twice-blessed smiles friendlily and says, “It’s a horrible place. I wouldn’t recommend going down there.”

“No one was saying anything about going to the Underworld,” Chris assures.

Wyatt has been very strict lately. If he gets the idea in his head that Chris plans to sneak into the Underworld, Wyatt might never let Chris leave the mansion again…

“Well, good,” says Wyatt. “Oh, and I came up to tell you guys that your breakfast is getting cold.”

“We were on our way,” Prue replies frostily.

Wyatt smirks at her. “Alright then.”

He orbs away.

“You can’t honestly tell me he isn’t freaking you out,” Prue mutters after a quiet moment.

Chris doesn’t reply.

* * *

It’s only three weeks later that Paige and Phoebe discover what’s really going on in that cellar. They have a big fight with Wyatt (the shouting kind) and by the end of the day they have packed their bags and left, taking Prue with them. Chris stays. Wyatt is his brother, he’s obviously going through some kind of moral dilemma, but he can’t abandon him.

The mansion is a lot lonelier without Prue and his aunts.

Chris spends a lot of time in the library now, reading. There’s nothing else for him to do. He quit going to Magic School when it became too stifling, and going outside to mingle with people who view him as some sort of all-powerful being isn’t appealing either. By now, he’s read all the Shakespeare’s and even tried The Odyssey and The Iliad. Modern stories don’t seem to be his thing, apparently. His days become a blur of poetic verses and brief conversations with his brother.

Then comes the day that he decides he’s had enough. Chris finally marches himself down to that cellar, avoiding the attention of the sentry Wyatt insisted on hiring, and orbs inside. He’s not prepared for what he finds: men and women, completely ordinary people, locked up in cells. Obviously being starved and mistreated... When they see him appear, a new face down here in this dreary dungeon, they call out for help.

A man who had been standing guard outside the cells spots him.

“Hey, you!”

Only barely, Chris manages to avoid the fireball.

He orbs up to his brother’s room, bangs insistently on the door, and calls for his brother. Wyatt opens the door, looking baffled at Chris’ ruffled appearance.

They talk.

Wyatt explains to him why he has to do what he does. He has to instill fear in the people. It’s the only way he can rule over them. Without fear there is no respect. The people in the dungeon deserved to be put there. Wyatt has been hiring demons to work for him. The demons follow him ever since he killed the last Source.

“You understand why I am doing this, don’t you Christopher? I’m trying to make the world a better place for us. You understand that.”

The only thing Chris can think to say is “Of course, Wy.”

It won’t be the last time he ever lies to his brother.

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic is set in an alternate universe, so I am exercising the right to do whatever I want with this story.


End file.
